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Once considered harmless by doctors, calcium crystal deposits in the knee joint actually can contribute to worsening arthritis, a new study warns. CT scans have revealed that calcium crystals in the knee can promote joint damage, wearing away the cartilage that keeps bones from rubbing together, researchers reported recently in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology. “The cartilage damage is most likely to occur in the same locations where the crystals are deposited, suggesting a localized effect,” said researcher Dr. Tuhina Neogi, a professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. “We have also showed that these crystals can contribute to knee pain in another recently published paper,” Neogi added in a university news release. “Taken together, these findings highlight the important role of calcium crystals to structural damage and symptoms in knee osteoarthritis.” Knee osteoarthritis affects about 34 million people in the United States and 600 million worldwide. It happens when the cartilage in the knee joint breaks down. There are no treatments available that prevent its progression, researchers said in background notes. Up to now, calcium crystal deposits in the knee were thought to be of no clinical consequence, and just something that happens with old age, the researchers said. But using CT scans of nearly 1,700 patients, the team was able to detect a higher amount of deposits than previously revealed by regular… read on > read on >

Rodeo riders might make it all look easy, but they’re actually participating in one of the most strenuous sports around, experts say. As such, folks participating in rodeo need to take steps to protect themselves, just as other athletes do, said Dr. Omar Atassi, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “You can get sprains or ligament tears, tendon injuries, breaks or fractures in bones in any sport,” Atassi said in a Baylor news release. “Just because you don’t hear about injuries in rodeo sport since it’s not as common as something like pickleball doesn’t mean it can’t be dangerous. When an injury does occur in rodeo sport, it can be fairly significant.” Atassi spoke out as locals prepare for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which draws in cowboys and cowgirls for days of rodeo events. The most common rodeo injuries are the sort of horse-related incidents that frequently occur among even weekend riders, Atassi said. A bucking horse might hit a rider’s hand with its head, potentially causing a broken hand or a strained wrist. Someone thrown from their horse might suffer an ankle sprain, torn ligaments or broken bones if their foot gets caught in the stirrup. In a worst-case scenario, a horse could fall on the rider, resulting in a pelvis fracture, Atassi added. Low-grade… read on > read on >

Deaths where alcohol played a key role climbed sharply in recent years, hitting women even harder than men, new government data shows. Between 2016 and 2021 (the latest numbers available), “the average number of U.S. deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by more than 40,000 [29%], to 178,000 per year,” reported a team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Put another way, during 2020 and 2021, an average of 488 Americans died each day from excessive drinking, the report’s authors concluded. The rate of increase appears to be accelerating: Between 2016 and 2019, deaths where alcohol was a factor rose by 5%, but between 2018 and 2021 they climbed by 23%. Men continue to lose their lives to alcohol in greater numbers than women, the report found. However, the rate at which women are dying from excessive drinking is rising faster than that of men, the researchers found. Over the study period, deaths from excessive alcohol use among women rose by about 35%, compared to about a 27% rise among men. The new data looked at deaths directly linked to drinking — things like alcoholic liver disease or excessive intoxication — as well as more indirect causes, such as heavy drinking’s role in heart disease and stroke. Over the study period, death rates rose for most forms of alcohol-related deaths, but “death… read on > read on >

Air travel can be miserable for people with disabilities, particularly if an airline mishandles, damages or loses their wheelchair in transit. Now, the Biden Administration has proposed tough new standards for how airlines treat and accommodate people in wheelchairs. The proposed rules would make mishandling wheelchairs an automatic violation of the Air Carrier Access Act, allowing federal regulators to more easily hold airlines accountable when a person’s wheelchair is damaged. The rules would also mandate better training and improved practices to ensure that disabled passengers receive safe, dignified and prompt assistance at airports. “There are millions of Americans with disabilities who do not travel by plane because of inadequate airline practices and inadequate government regulation, but now we are setting out to change that,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an announcement outlining the proposed rule. “This new rule would change the way airlines operate to ensure that travelers using wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity,” Buttigieg added. An estimated 5.5 million Americans use a wheelchair, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said. In 2023, 11,527 wheelchairs and scooters were lost, delayed, damaged or stolen by airlines. Among its provisions, the new rule would require airlines to: Immediately notify passengers of their options if their wheelchair has been mishandled Repair or replace damaged wheelchairs Return a lost wheelchair to the passenger’s final destination… read on > read on >

In a finding that unearths yet another way Long COVID can harm health, new research finds the condition may trigger thinking declines. Published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study involved cognitive testing on nearly 113,000 people in England. It found that those with Long COVID scored 6 IQ points lower than people who had never been infected with the virus. Even folks who didn’t suffer lingering symptoms after a bout of COVID scored slightly lower than people who had never been infected — in this case, by 3 IQ points. Still, the differences in scores were small and experts stressed the findings don’t mean that COVID causes profound deficits in thinking and memory. However, they do provide proof that the brain fog many folks who get Long COVID experience is likely not imagined. “These emerging and coalescing findings are generally highlighting that, yes, there is cognitive impairment in Long COVID survivors — it’s a real phenomenon,” James Jackson, a neuropsychologist at Vanderbilt Medical Center who wasn’t involved in the study, told the New York Times. Luckily, the latest study suggests that if people’s Long COVID symptoms resolve themselves, the related thinking impairments might also ease. Study volunteers who had Long COVID for months before finally recovering eventually had testing scores similar to those who had experienced a quick recovery. Importantly, the standard… read on > read on >

Middle-aged folks who have difficulties navigating their way through space could be at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease years later, a new study finds. “Very early symptoms of dementia can be subtle and difficult to detect, but problems with navigation are thought to be some of the first changes in Alzheimer’s disease,” noted Dr. Richard Oakley, associate director of research and innovation at the Alzheimer’s Society. He wasn’t involved in the new British research, although the society did help fund the study. “One in three people born today will go on to develop dementia,” Oakley added, “and early and accurate diagnosis of the diseases that cause the condition are vital for people to access the right support, plan for the future and receive appropriate treatment.” The study involved 100 middle-aged people (ages 43 to 66), none of who had any of the standard symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. At the time of the study, they were all about 25 years younger than the expected age of Alzheimer’s onset. However, the participants were all thought to be at heightened odds for the illness due to factors such as genetics, family history or lifestyle. Researchers at University College London (UCL) had the participants strap on a virtual reality (VR) headset and then “navigate” their way through a virtual environment. Folks already known to be at higher Alzheimer’s… read on > read on >

Teens have a higher risk of self-injury — deliberately cutting or burning themselves — if they have a fraught relationship with a struggling parent, a new study shows. Teenagers were nearly five times more likely to self-injure if, when they were 6, their moms and dads reported stress and discomfort in their role as parents, researchers found. Teens also had a nearly doubled risk of self-harm if they perceived parental hostility and negativity at the age of 6, researchers report. “Stress in parents is hypothesized to have widespread negative impacts on child development, including the development of behavioral problems,” said researchers Tove Wichstrom and Lars Wichstrom, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. “It is therefore possible that increased stress contributes to the emergence of risk factors in children,” including a higher risk of self-injury, they added. For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 759 Norwegian adolescents at ages 12, 14 or 16 to determine the teens’ rate of non-suicidal self-injury. About 10% of the teens reported self-injury within the past year, with girls nearly 12 times more likely than boys to cut, burn or otherwise injure themselves. Such self-injury is typically a way to cope with emotional pain, sadness, anger and stress, according to the Mayo Clinic. It’s rarely meant as a suicide attempt, but rather as a means of… read on > read on >

Ultra-processed foods can cause dozens of terrible health problems among people who eat them too often, a new review warns. Researchers linked diets high in ultra-processed foods to an increased risk of 32 separate illnesses. In particular, these foods are strongly tied to risk with early death, heart disease, cancer, mental health disorders, overweight and obesity, and type 2 diabetes, researchers said. For example, ultra-processed foods are associated with a 50% increased risk of heart-related death, a 48% to 53% increased risk of anxiety and common mental disorders, and a 12% risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers said. And the more of these foods people eat, the higher their overall health risks, results showed. Ultra-processed foods include packaged snacks, sugary drinks, instant noodles, sweet cereals and ready-to-eat meals. The products undergo multiple industrial processes to make them tasty and shelf-stable, and contain additives like emulsifiers, coloring agents and chemical flavors. Unfortunately, ultra-processed foods now account for up to 58% of total daily energy intake in some high income-countries, and are proliferating in low- and middle-income countries, researchers said in background notes. “Notably, over recent decades, the availability and variety of ultra-processed products sold has substantially and rapidly increased” in countries around the world, wrote the research team led by Melissa Lane, an associate research fellow with the Deaken University Institute for Mental and Physical Health… read on > read on >

The eyes may have it when it comes to the early diagnosis of autism in children, a new study finds. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have pinpointed a gene that affects how kids’ eyes react when they turn their heads. Typically, people use what’s called the vestibulo-ocular reflex to help their sight coordinate with their head movement. However, kids with autism appear to have a gene that puts this reflex into overdrive, and the change can be picked up on vision tests. That might help speed research into autism, said study co-author Kevin Bender, a professor in the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. “We can measure it in kids with autism who are non-verbal or can’t or don’t want to follow instructions,” Bender said in a university news release. “This could be a game-changer in both the clinic and the lab.” The significance of the variant in the eye-tracking gene, called SCN2A, was first spotted in mice. If you shake your head, your eyes still stay more or less “centered,” the researchers explained. But in mice with a particular form of the SCN2A gene, that wasn’t the case. Their vestibulo-ocular reflex got stuck. Would this aberration show up in children with autism? To find out, Bender’s group conducted a study involving 5 kids with autism and 11 of their siblings who… read on > read on >

Folks hoping to quell their anxiety would do best to use cannabis products that don’t get them high, a new clinical trial has found. The non-intoxicating marijuana compound CBD appears to help manage anxiety better than THC, the chemical in weed that gets people high, researchers say. Patients with anxiety randomly assigned to smoke CBD-dominant products experienced greater improvements in mood than people smoking THC-heavy products or products with an even split between CBD and THC. “Our study suggests that CBD products may be able to relieve anxiety in the moment for adults who use them, and possibly longer-term, in a way that is meaningful and doesn’t necessarily produce the same risks or harms of THC or prescription medications,” said senior researcher Cinnamon Bidwell, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience with the University of Colorado Boulder. About one in five U.S. adults suffer from an anxiety disorder, making it the most common mental illness in the country, researchers said in background notes. Prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications are on the rise, and the drive to legalize marijuana has made cannabis products an attractive treatment option for people with anxiety. Adults rank anxiety among the top three medical reasons for turning to cannabis, alongside sleep and pain, researchers said. However, some studies have suggested that using cannabis too frequently or leaning on potent products high in… read on > read on >

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Calcium Crystals in Knee Could Be Worsening Arthritis

Rodeo Riders Risk Rough Injuries

U.S. Deaths Linked to Alcohol Keep Rising, Especially Among Women

U.S. to Strengthen Protections for Air Travelers With Wheelchairs

Long COVID May Harm Cognition

Impaired Sense of Direction Could Be Early Alzheimer’s Sign

Stressed Parents Could Mean More Self-Harm by Kids

‘Ultra-Processed’ Foods Harm Your Health in More Than 30 Different Ways

Simple Eye Test Might Spot Autism in Kids

Using Marijuana to Ease Stress? Focus on CBD, not THC